Hi my name is Greg Hale (Phantom of the Wires) to some. I was born in Erie
Pennsylvania in 1960. As a kid growing up my father worked for the General Electric
Company and in the summer of 1970 accepted a transfer to Shreveport Louisiana. I was
severely bitten by the insulator bug September 1977 at the age of 16 and have been
suffering its wonderful effects since.
Insulator collecting first started while in my high school Geology class. I had a friend,
Billy Andrews, who collected insulators and one day he brought in some glass insulators to
show my best friend Steve German and I. Like a tick on a dog insulator fever consumed me
at that moment. Not far from our neighborhood was an old toll line that had been stripped
of wire and poles cut down with young trees growing up thru them. We found this by
accident while in the woods. We accumulated quite a few insulators nothing rare but a
collection has to start with the common stuff. Climbing poles and walking the railroads in
town was now the norm. I remember the first aqua pieces I found on an old abandoned Texas
Pacific rail line in Grand Cane. They were CD 145 H.G.Co. and a CD 151 H.G.CO. Petticoat
with sharp drips on both skirts. My friend Steve and I would drive everywhere to walk pole
lines. We called ourselves, "Phantom of the Wires". We would take before and after
pictures of some of the poles I climbed. We had so much fun retrieving insulators; the
memories will live with me forever.
In the spring of 1979 after graduating from high school, my father accepted another
transfer from General Electric to the New England area. Somersworth New Hampshire is where
the GE plant is located, and my parents bought a house in Dover.
My insulator collection at that time was about one hundred pieces and about two hundred
spare pieces for trading. The funny thing about moving my insulators up to New Hampshire
is the moving guy paid me to load them on the truck. They were all wrapped in newspaper
and placed in wooden boxes I picked up at a grocery store in town. All our stuff arrived a
week later and I have been up here ever since.
On June 16th 1984 I married Sue and we bought our first house in Somersworth on 17 Third
Street. It was an old house built in 1921 and we did a lot of work on it our selves. Of
course my insulators were moved from my parents house to a small down stairs bedroom
officially named my "insulator room." My insulator collection grew and so did the shelves
I built. I would be out every chance I could get to dig and search for insulators. In The
summer of 1985, Sue and I would start an annual trip of going down to Pennsylvania to go
flea marketing and camping around the Pottsville - Reading area. Many goodies were brought
back to that little house of ours.
In the summer of 1987, Sue and I sold our house in Somersworth and bought a new house in
Rochester on 14 Sunrise Drive. I quickly laid clam as to where my insulator room would be
which was the basement of our raised ranch house. That room was transformed into
wall-to-wall shelves and after a few years began to run out of room.
Our trips to Pennsylvania continued and in 1990 we bought a pop-up camper to make our
trips down there better. We brought a lot of insulators home packed away inside. On
October 1st, 1993, our daughter Maurisa was born. When she learned to walk she started to
participate in our flea market adventures and three sets of eyes searching are always
better than two. We also started collecting antique eyecups. We currently have over 200
cups.
In the fall of 1999 we put our house up for sale and rented a condo about 2 miles from our
former home. We were looking to move to Pennsylvania and it would be easier to do without
a house and my daughter didn't go to school yet. My insulators were boxed up and placed in
storage. I continued to collect and as I found or bought new insulators boxed them up for
storage. The 25-foot pole I erected with four cross arms stayed behind as a sentential of
the insulator collector who had once lived there.
Well moving to Pennsylvania did not materialize and my daughter started school,
Pennsylvania would wait until later in life. In the summer of 2001, Sue and I bought a new
large colonial house in the neighboring town of Milton. This is the kind of house we have
always wanted and plenty of room for insulators and family. The basement would be the new
Phantom of the Wires storage room. In 2003 I erected another 25-foot pole in the back
yard. The pole has five cross arms displaying the jewels of glass and porcelain. If you're
driving by you can see it towering above the back yard. I added a 70-watt sodium light for
security. Though we have been there for almost three years, my insulator room is in the
works. Sue and I worked on painting and added our touches to this house; the insulator
room was put on hold. I designed and built new shelving to display both glass and
porcelain. The shelves would be lit up from the back and the same shelf could be used for
porcelain but the lights would be placed in the front as to shine light on the porcelain.
The lights would be concealed and the shelves painted white to reflect light and bring out
true color. By the fall of 2004, I should have my insulators displayed again. Boy, I miss
looking at them. Some times I go down stairs just to look at the boxes they are stored in
just to remember.
My best friend Steve does not collect any more and lives in another part of the U.S., but
the Phantom of the Wires is alive and well in the Northeast. I am my own insulator entity
and I call myself PHANTOM of the WIRES. I have been collecting 30 years and there are some
really nice people who share this wonderful hobby.
My insulator specialties are Star insulators, and CD152's. I love them all but Stars and
CD152's are affordable and plenty variations of them around. The CD152 insulator has a
neat history about them being manufactured from 1910 -1922, before the Hemingray 42. It is
hard to stick to a specialty collection. If I don't have it in my collection, then we need
to get one, with in reason.
June 2004, my wife and I just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. I would marry her
all over again. We have had fun over the years finding insulators and eyecups, and
hopefully, God willing, will have another twenty years of the same.
If you're in the area and want to see my collection give me a call. My address, phone
number and e-mail address are in the directory. My collection is around 2000 pieces and
when my room is done I will be able to rest. I enjoy going out looking for insulators
especially in the wild. It is so much fun to go out and with some searching dig them or
rescue them off a pole or building. I Like collecting both glass and porcelain insulators.
If you don't get the directory my address is:
Greg Hale
32 Dames Brook Drive
Milton, NH 03851-4705
603-755-3119